Çanakkale is a city and seaport in Turkey on the southern shore of the Dardanelles at their narrowest point. It is the seat of Çanakkale Province and Çanakkale District . Its population is 143,622 (2021).
82-477: Çanakkale is the nearest major urban centre to the ancient city of Troy , which (together with the ancient region of the Troad ) is also located inside Çanakkale Province . The wooden horse from the 2004 movie Troy is exhibited on the Çanakkale waterfront. Today Çanakkale is the main base for visits to the ruins of Troy and to the First World War cemeteries at Gallipoli . Particularly around 18 March and 25 April ( ANZAC Day ) when there are major celebrations of
164-587: A Mediterranean climate ( Köppen : Csa or Trewartha : Cs ) with hot, dry summers and cool, humid winters. Winds are strong year long, particularly in winter months. Highest recorded temperature:39.7 °C (103.5 °F) on 1 August 2021 Lowest recorded temperature:−11.5 °C (11.3 °F) on 2 February 1929 Within the boundaries of the city there are 13 high schools and a college. Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University has 12 faculties, four institutes, nine four-year college programs and 14 vocational schools and serves more than 52,000 students. Thirty percent of
246-582: A 100-year gap between Troy III and Troy IV. Combined with a similar analysis of the pottery sequences of Korfmann and Schliemann this suggests that for a time in the late Early Bronze Age occupation contracted to the western end of the citadel mound. From 1988 to 2005, excavations were conducted by a team from the University of Tübingen and the University of Cincinnati under the direction of Professor Manfred Korfmann , with Professor Brian Rose overseeing Post-Bronze Age (Greek, Roman, Byzantine) excavation along
328-518: A German U-boat and Turkish small craft also contributed. In 1920 the city was estimated to have a population of approximately 22,000. A busy port , it was a stopping point for vessels traveling through the strait, as it had been in the ancient past although the British who passed through described it as lacking good quality accommodation or resources. Goods exported from the port included wine , hides, pottery , ceramic tiles and grain. In Çanakkale town
410-403: A clear view of Trojan plain and the sea beyond it. The citadel was accessed by five gates, which led into paved and drained cobblestone streets. Some of these gates featured enormous pillars which serve no structural purpose and have been interpreted as religious symbols. The halls were built in megaron style, resembling Mycenaean architecture . The lower town was built to the south of
492-440: A dense residential neighborhood in the citadel. Walls from Troy II may have been reused as part of Troy III. By the period of Troy V, the city had once again expanded outside the citadel to the west. Troy IV sees the introduction of domed ovens. In Troy V, artifacts include Anatolian-style "red-cross bowls" as well as imported Minoan objects. They would trade with other cities around them. Troy VI–VII
574-403: A distinctive characteristic in later periods, reflecting perennial security concerns at the vulnerable coastal site. Residents lived in attached houses made of stone and mudbrick. Some houses had a megaron layout, among which one room is notably larger than the others. Although the city plan is not entirely clear from its limited remains, the houses appear to have been oriented in parallel to
656-466: A location near the village of Pınarbaşı, Ezine , a mound approximately 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) south of the currently accepted location. Published in his Voyage de la Troade , it was the most commonly proposed location for almost a century. In 1822, the Scottish journalist Charles Maclaren was the first to identify with confidence the position of the city as it is now known. The first excavations at
738-527: A man who worked as a scribe on the other. The seal is important since it is the only example of preclassical writing found at the site, and provides potential evidence that Troy VIIb1 had a Luwian -speaking population. However, the find is puzzling since palace bureaucracies had largely disappeared by this era. Proposed explanations include the possibility that it belonged to an itinerant freelance scribe and alternatively that it dates from an earlier era than its find context would suggest. Troy VIIb2
820-402: A new handmade style sometimes known as "barbarian ware". Imported Mycenaean-style pottery attests to some continuing foreign trade. However, the city's population appears to have dropped, and rebuilding seems to be confined to the citadel. One of the most striking finds from Troy VIIb1 is a bronze biconvex hieroglyphic Luwian seal giving the name of a woman on one side and the name of
902-446: A notable slope, similar to those at other sites including Hattusa . However, the walls differ from contemporary Aegean and Anatolian sites both in their lack of figural sculpture and in their masonry . While Troy VI's walls were made entirely of close-fitting ashlars , contemporary sites typically used ashlars around a rubble core . Troy VI's walls were overlooked by several rectangular watchtowers, which would also have provided
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#1733085194966984-834: A population of 10,862, the rest being Muslims (3,551), Orthodox Greeks (2,577), Armenians (956) and assorted foreigners (2,173). In 1915, during the First World War , Britain and France attempted to secure the Dardanelles with a view to capturing Constantinople. What is known in the West as the Gallipoli Campaign , or the Dardanelles Campaign, is referred to as the Battle of Çanakkale ( Turkish : Çanakkale Savaşı ) in Turkey. In March 1915
1066-621: A pottery industry, possibly associated with a wine or oil industry. The style of these pots shows stylistic similarities to other North Aegean sites, suggesting cultural contact. (Because other artifacts do not show these links, archaeologists believe that Greek settlement of Troy did not begin until later.) Both the Troy VI walls and the Troy VIIa Terrace House were reused for worship and communal feasting, as evidenced by animal bones, pottery assemblages, and traces of burned incense. Strikingly,
1148-417: A private car is not so easy. In summer it is also easy to reach Gökçeada -one of two inhabited Aegean islands that belong to Turkey- by ferry from Çanakkale. In winter bad weather may prevent the ferries from sailing. From the 17th century onwards Çanakkale appears to have had a thriving ceramics industry which seemed to have expanded as its competitors in İzmik and Kütahya went into decline. The produce of
1230-518: A section of the Troy ;VI wall which was weaker than the rest. Since the mythic city had likewise had a weak section of its walls, Dörpfeld became convinced that this layer corresponded to Homeric Troy. Schliemann himself privately agreed that Troy VI was more likely to be the Homeric city, but he never published anything stating so. Carl Blegen , professor at the University of Cincinnati , managed
1312-490: A town developed to the north-east of Kale-I Sultaniye. From the late 15th century onwards, Jewish refugees expelled from Spain settled in Çanakkale and formed a sizeable community which thrived by supplying local shipping with provisions and acting as consular agents for many European nations. Into the late 19th century the Jewish community adopted Spanish as their mother-tongue. Some 1,805 Jews were registered there in 1890, out of
1394-562: A trench across the mound of Hisarlık to the depth of the settlements, today called " Schliemann's Trench ". In 1871–1873 and 1878–1879, 1882 and 1890 (the later two joined by Wilhelm Dörpfeld), he discovered the ruins of a series of ancient cities dating from the Bronze Age to the Roman period. Schliemann was planning for another excavation season in 1891 when he died in December 1890. He proposed that
1476-485: Is a fortress on the west side of the Dardanelles , opposite the city of Çanakkale , where there is a corresponding fortress ( Kale-i Sultaniye ), from which Çanakkale takes its name. The two castles were constructed by Fatih Sultan Mehmet in 1463 to control the straits at their narrowest point. Kilitbahir's name, meaning "lock of the sea", reflects this defensive purpose. Due to the protracted siege against Candia ,
1558-471: Is also notable for its architectural innovations as well as its cultural developments, which included the first evidence of horses at the site. The language spoken in Troy VI is unknown. One candidate is Luwian , an Anatolian language believed to have been spoken in the general area. Potential evidence comes from a biconvex seal inscribed with the name of a person using Anatolian hieroglyphs often used to write Luwian. However, available evidence
1640-594: Is derived. Many accounts by 19th-century visitors to the town refer to it as Dardanelles. From around 1920, the British began to call Çanakkale 'Chanak' and 'Kale Sultanie' in their reporting. The first inhabitants of the area lived on the Biga Peninsula in the Last Chalcolithic Age c. 6,000 years ago. However, very little is known about their identity and lifestyle. According to some excavations and research,
1722-420: Is evidenced by a defensive ditch cut 1-2 into the bedrock. A wall or palisade may have stood several meters behind the ditch, as in the outer defenses of other cities such as Qadesh and Carchemish . However, material evidence for such a wall is limited to postholes and cuts in the bedrock. The lower city was only discovered in the late 1980s, earlier excavators having assumed that Troy VI occupied only
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#17330851949661804-431: Is generally known as Troya or Truva . The archaeological site of Troy consists of the hill of Hisarlık and the fields below it to the south. The hill is a tell , composed of strata containing the remains left behind by more than three millennia of human occupation. The primary divisions among layers are designated with Roman numerals , Troy I representing the oldest layer and Troy IX representing
1886-412: Is known about these several layers due to Schliemann 's careless excavation practices. In order to fully excavate the citadel of Troy II, he destroyed most remains from this period without first documenting them. These settlements appear to have been smaller and poorer than previous ones, though this interpretation could be merely the result of gaps in the surviving evidence. The settlements included
1968-478: Is marked by dramatic cultural changes including walls made of upright stones and a handmade knobbed pottery style known as Buckelkeramik . These practices, which existed alongside older local traditions, have been argued to reflect immigrant populations arriving from southwest Europe. These newcomers may have shared an origin with the Phrygians who initiated similar cultural shifts at sites such as Gordion . This layer
2050-404: Is not sufficient to establish that Luwian was actually spoken by the city's population, and a number of alternatives, such as Greek and Lemnian-Etruscan , have been proposed. Hittite documents found at Hattusa suggest that literacy existed at Troy and that the city may have had a written archive. The Alaksandu Treaty required King Alaksandu to read its text publicly three times a year, while
2132-508: Is notable for having been misidentified as Homeric Troy, during initial excavations, because of its massive architecture, treasure hoards, and catastrophic destruction. In particular Schliemann saw Homer's description of Troy's Scaean Gate reflected in Troy II's imposing western gate. However, later excavations demonstrated that the site was a thousand years too old to have coexisted with Mycenaean Greeks . Troy continued to be occupied between 2300 BC and 1750 BC. However, little
2214-521: Is notable for its wealth and imposing architecture. During the Late Bronze Age , Troy was called Wilusa and was a vassal of the Hittite Empire . The final layers (Troy VIII-IX) were Greek and Roman cities which in their days served as tourist attractions and religious centers because of their link to mythic tradition. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destination, and
2296-489: The Milawata letter mentions that the deposed King Walmu was still in possession of wooden investiture tablets. The archive would likely have been housed in the citadel's innermost precinct, whose remains were pushed over the northern side of the hill during 3rd century construction. Despite attempts to sift through the rubble, no documents have been found. Troy VI was destroyed around 1300 BC, corresponding with
2378-660: The Istanbul Archaeology Museum . Almost all the precious metal objects that went to Berlin were confiscated by the Soviet Union in 1945 and are now in Pushkin Museum in Moscow . Even in his own time Schliemann's legacy was controversial because of his excavation methods which included removing features he considered insignificant without first studying and documenting them. Wilhelm Dörpfeld (1893–1894) began working
2460-566: The Royal Navy failed to force the Dardanelles and suffered severe losses. In a series of operations, HMS Triumph , HMS Ocean , HMS Goliath , HMS Irresistible and the French battleship Bouvet were all sunk. The French submarine Joule and the Australian submarine AE2 were also destroyed and several other important ships were crippled. Most of the damage was inflicted by mines, though
2542-495: The Ancient Near East. Troy II was destroyed twice. After the first destruction, the citadel was rebuilt with a dense cluster of small houses on an irregular plan. The final destruction took place around 2300 BC. While some scholars have linked this destruction to a broader crisis that affected other Near Eastern sites, there is no definitive evidence for the city having been destroyed by an attack. Troy II
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2624-532: The Bronze Age city were destroyed by the Greeks' building projects, notably the peak of the citadel where the Troy VI palace is likely to have stood. By the classical era , the city had numerous temples, a theater, among other public buildings, and was once again expanding to the south of the citadel. Troy VIII was destroyed in 85 BC, and subsequently rebuilt as Troy IX. A series of earthquakes devastated
2706-435: The Bronze Age they would have been overlaid with wood and mudbrick superstructures, reaching a height over 9 metres (30 ft). The walls were built in a "sawtooth" style made of 7–10 metres (23–33 ft) segments which joined at shallow angles. This characteristic is common in the walls of Mycenaean citadels, though at Troy it is also found in other buildings, suggesting that it may have been decorative. The walls also have
2788-452: The Bronze Age, as suggested by Hittite records which refer to a city in northwest Anatolia called Wilusa ( 𒌷𒃾𒇻𒊭 ) or Truwisa ( 𒆳𒌷𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ) which is generally identified with the site of Hisarlık, near Tevfikiye . In Greek myth, these names were held to originate from the names of the kingdom's founders, Tros and his son Ilus . In Latin , the city was referred to as Troia or Ilium . In Turkish , it
2870-533: The Kale-I Sultaniye fortress built on the site now occupied by Çanakkale - it takes it names from the fact that one of the Sultan's sons had collaborated in its construction. Kale-I Sultaniye was built at the narrowest point of the Dardanelles and, together with the fort of Kilitbahir on the opposite side, provided effective in controlling traffic through the strait. The two forts were quickly dubbed "The Castles", and
2952-488: The Mycenaean palaces . The destruction layer shows evidence of enemy attack, including scorch marks. After the destruction of Troy VIIa around 1180 BC, the city was rebuilt as Troy VIIb. Older structures were again reused, including Troy VI's citadel walls. Its first phase, Troy VIIb1, appears to be largely a continuation of Troy VIIa. Residents continued using wheel-made Grey Ware pottery alongside
3034-473: The Terrace House was not renovated when it was adopted as a cult center and thus must have been used in a ruined state, potentially suggesting that the occupants of Troy VIIb3 were deliberately re-engaging with their past. Troy VIIb was destroyed by fire around 950 BC. However, some houses in the citadel were left intact and the site continued to be occupied, if only sparsely. Troy VIII
3116-541: The Troy I level. From 2006 until 2012, these excavations continued under the direction of Korfmann's colleague Ernst Pernicka, with a new digging permit. In 2013, an international team made up of cross-disciplinary experts led by William Aylward, an archaeologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was to carry out new excavations. This activity was to be conducted under the auspices of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University and
3198-612: The accuracy of C 14 dating . Troy 0 is a pre-Bronze Age layer known from limited finds of pottery shards and wooden beams. It is tentatively dated to c. 3600–3500 BC but little is known about it. Troy I was founded around 3000 BC on what was then the eastern shore of a shallow lagoon. It was significantly smaller than later settlements at the site, with a citadel covering less than 1 ha . However, it stood out from its neighbours in particular for its massive limestone fortifications which were regularly renovated and strengthened. Defensive architecture would continue to be
3280-505: The center were large megaron-style buildings around a courtyard which was likely used for public events. One of these buildings, Megaron IIA, is the biggest known building of its kind in the Aegean-Anatolian region. The citadel was protected by massive stone walls and towers topped with mudbrick superstructures. It was accessed through two ramps, one of which is well preserved and attracts attention from modern day tourists. Because
3362-408: The citadel, covering an area of roughly 30 hectares. Remains of a dense neighborhood have been found just outside the citadel walls, and traces of Bronze Age occupation have been found further away. These include huts, stone paving, threshing floors, pithoi, and waste left behind by Bronze Age industry such as murex shells associated with the manufacture of purple dye. The extent of the lower town
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3444-494: The city around 500 AD, though finds from the Late Byzantine era attest to continued habitation at a small scale. Early modern travellers in the 16th and 17th centuries, including Pierre Belon and Pietro Della Valle , had mistakenly identified Troy with Alexandria Troas , a ruined Hellenistic town approximately 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of Hisarlık. In the late 18th century, Jean Baptiste LeChevalier identified
3526-437: The city was not large enough to require two gates for practical purposes, some archaeologists have speculated that one of the gates was intended for ceremonial processions. The lower city was protected by a wooden palisade unlike any other known in that era. It was a complex structure nearly 3 meters wide, with interior buttresses and columns and beams secured in notches cut into the bedrock. Wheel-made pottery appears at
3608-452: The city's population are college graduates. Troy Troy ( Ancient Greek : Τροία , romanized : Troíā ; Latin : Trōia ; Hittite : 𒆳𒌷𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 , romanized: Truwiša / Taruiša ) or Ilion ( Ancient Greek : Ἴλιον , romanized : Ī́lion , Hittite : 𒌷𒃾𒇻𒊭 , romanized: Wiluša ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlık (near Tevfikiye ), Turkey . The place
3690-473: The classical-era remains and led to their subsequent partnership. In 1868, German businessman Heinrich Schliemann visited Calvert, and secured permission to excavate Hisarlık. At this point in time, the mound was about 200 meters long and somewhat less than 150 meters wide. It rose 31.2 meters above the plain and 38.5 meters above sea level. As with Calvert and others, in April 1870 Schliemann began by excavating
3772-636: The coast of the Aegean Sea at the Bay of Troy. Possible evidence of a battle was found in the form of bronze arrowheads and fire-damaged human remains buried in layers dated to the early 12th century BC. The question of Troy VI's status in the Bronze-Age world was the subject of a sometimes acerbic debate between Korfmann and the Tübingen historian Frank Kolb in 2001–2002. One of the major discoveries of these excavations
3854-890: The control of the Ancient Macedonian army after Alexander the Great defeated the Persians beside the Granicus River in the Battle of the Granicus on his way to Asia in 334 BC. The region came under the government of the Kingdom of Pergamon in the 2nd century BC. The western part of the Biga Peninsula where ancient Troy is situated used to be called Troas (the Troad). The settlement of Alexandria Troas
3936-510: The earliest settlements in the area were established at Kumtepe . Kumkale is thought to have been established in 4000 BC and Troy between 3500 and 3000 BC. Aeolian Greeks settled here in the 8th century BC and quickly established trading colonies. The region came under the control of the Lydians in the 7th century BC and under the control of the Persians in the 6th century BC. Aeolis fell under
4018-546: The eastern Aegean and southeastern Europe. Troy itself appears to have maintained these connections, showing similarities to sites in Thessaly and southeastern Europe, as well as Aegean sites such as Poliochni in Lemnos and Thermi in Lesbos . Despite some connections to Anatolian sites including Bademağacı , it did not yet have the close ties with central Anatolia seen later. Troy I
4100-452: The events of the war the town is heavily visited. Çanakkale Airport is 3 km from the city centre. AnadoluJet and Borajet have daily flights from Istanbul and Ankara . Intercity buses run to Bursa , Istanbul and İzmir . Çanakkale was originally the site of an Ottoman fortress called Ḳalʿa-i Sulṭānīye ( Ottoman Turkish : قلعهٔ سلطانیه , lit. 'fortress of the sultan'; Turkish : Sultaniye Kalesi ). From
4182-566: The evidence that hadn't already decomposed, been built over, or reused in later construction . The material culture of Troy VI appears to belong to a distinct Northwest Anatolian cultural group, with influences from the Aegean and the Balkans. The primary local pottery styles were wheel-made Tan Ware and Anatolian Gray Ware. Both styles were offshoots of an earlier Middle Helladic tradition related to Minyan Ware . The earliest gray ware at Troy
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#17330851949664264-468: The first several sublayers of Troy VII were in fact continuations of the earlier city. Although some scholars have proposed revising the nomenclature to reflect this consensus, the original terms are typically used to avoid confusion. Troy VI existed from around 1750 BC to 1300 BC. Its citadel was divided into a series of rising terraces, of which only the outermost is reasonably well-preserved. On this terrace, archaeologists have found
4346-501: The function of regional capital, its status protected by treaties. Aspects of its architecture are consistent with the Iliad 's description of mythic Troy, and several of its sublayers (VIh and VIIa) show potential signs of violent destruction. Thus, these sublayers are among the candidates for a potential historical setting of those myths. Troy VI and VII were given separate labels by early excavators, but current research has shown that
4428-406: The ground. Troy VIIa seems to have been built by survivors of Troy VI's destruction, as evidenced by continuity in material culture. However, the character of the city appears to have changed, the citadel growing crowded and foreign imports declining. The city was destroyed around 1180 BC, roughly contemporary with the Late Bronze Age collapse but subsequent to the destruction of
4510-422: The hill of Hisarlık. Its discovery led to a dramatic reassessment of Troy VI, showing that it was over 16 times larger than had been assumed, and thus a major city with a large population rather than a mere aristocratic residence. However, only 2–3% of the lower city had been excavated as of 2013, and few architectural features are likely to exist. Almost 2m of the surface has eroded, likely removing much of
4592-433: The kilns was, however, less sophisticated than that of the other two major centres, and by the late 19th century it appears to have been producing much pottery specifically aimed at the tourist market. Until recently the folksy quality of much Çanakkale ware, in particular its rather clumpy animal and plant-shaped pots, were tended to be sneered at. However, these same pieces are now very popular with collectors. Çanakkale has
4674-464: The late 17th century onwards it became known for its glazed Çanakkale ceramics , compared by the traveler Richard Pococke to Delftware , hence the later name Çanak Kalesi "Pottery Castle". This was adopted as the official name for the town in 1890, although having already been in use a century earlier. The Greek-Byzantine name for Çanakkale was Dardanellia , from which the English name Dardanelles
4756-521: The megaron at Midea in the Argolid . Archaeologists believe there may have been a royal palace on the highest terrace, but most Bronze Age remains from the top of the hill were cleared away by classical era building projects. The citadel was enclosed by a massive wall whose limestone base is visible to modern day visitors. These walls were periodically renovated, expanding from an initial width of 1.2 to 5 metres (3.9 to 16.4 ft) around 1400 BC. During
4838-548: The modern understanding of the site, though the exact relationship between myth and reality remains unclear and there is no definitive evidence for a Greek attack on the city. In Classical Greek , the city was referred to as both Troia ( Τροία ) and Ilion ( Ἴλιον ) or Ilios ( Ἴλιος ). Metrical evidence from the Iliad and the Odyssey suggests that the latter was originally pronounced Wilios . These names seem to date back to
4920-466: The most recent. Sublayers are distinguished with lowercase letters (e.g. VIIa and VIIb) and further subdivisions with numbers (e.g. VIIb1 and VIIb2). An additional major layer known as Troy 0 predates the layers which were initially given Roman numeral designations. The layers have been given relative dates by comparing artifacts found in them to those found at other sites. However, precise absolute dates are not always possible due to limitations in
5002-550: The old Kale-i Sultaniye is now called Çimenlik Kalesi and is open to the public as a military museum and art gallery. It also contains a replica of the mine-layer Nusret who used to relay mines removed from the Dardanelles by the Allied forces during the First World War. A late 19th-century clocktower acts as a signpost for the older part of town where narrow streets are filled with bars, cafes and hotels. Also in this older part of
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#17330851949665084-455: The remains of freestanding multistory houses where Trojan elites would have lived. These houses lacked ground-floor windows, and their stone exterior walls mirrored the architecture of the citadel fortifications. However, they otherwise display an eclectic mix of architectural styles, some following the classic megaron design, others even having irregular floorplans. Some of these houses show potential Aegean influence, one in particular resembling
5166-402: The second layer, Troy II, corresponded to the city of legend, though later research has shown that it predated the Mycenaean era by several hundred years. Significant finds included many "owl-headed idols" and stone axes from the lower levels. Some of the most notable artifacts found by Schliemann are known as Priam's Treasure , after the legendary Trojan king . Many of these ended up in
5248-458: The site 1932–38. Wilhelm Dörpfeld collaborated with Blegen. These archaeologists, though following Schliemann's lead, added a professional approach not available to Schliemann. He showed that there were at least nine cities. In his research, Blegen came to a conclusion that Troy's nine levels could be further divided into forty-six sublevels, which he published in his main report. A post hoc Correspondence Analysis of Blegen's pottery sequence showed
5330-447: The site alongside Schliemann and later inherited excavation at the site and published his own independent work. His chief contributions were to the study of Troy VI and VII, which Schliemann had overlooked due to his focus on Troy II. Dörpfeld's interest in these layers was triggered by the need to close a hole in the initial excavators' chronology known as "Calvert's Thousand Year Gap". During his excavation, Dörpfeld came across
5412-546: The site for the first time, along with caches of treasures that attest to Trojan participation in networks of aristocratic competition. These items were made from amber imported from the Baltic region , carnelian imported from India , and lapis imported from Afghanistan . Some of these items are strikingly similar to those found at sites such as Poliochni and Ur , leading some scholars to speculate that they may have been made by itinerant jewelers who worked routes covering much of
5494-408: The site were trenches by British civil engineer John Brunton in 1855. The next excavation at Hisarlık was conducted in 1865 by Frank Calvert , a Turkish Levantine man of English descent who owned a farm nearby. Calvert made extensive surveys of the site and correctly identified it with classical-era Ilion. This identification convinced Heinrich Schliemann that Homeric Troy should be sought beneath
5576-414: The southern walls. Artifacts from this era include dark colored handmade pottery, objects made of copper, as well as a monumental stone stele with a relief depicting an armed warrior. Troy I was founded as part of a consolidation of settlement in the area. Its founders came from nearby towns such as Kumtepe and Gülpınar , which had been part of an earlier network that had cultural and economic ties to
5658-473: The sublayer known as Troy VIh. Damage in the Troy VIh layer includes extensive collapsed masonry and subsidence in the southeast of the citadel, indicative of an earthquake . Alternative hypotheses include an internal uprising as well as a foreign attack, though the city was not burned and no victims were found in the debris. Troy VIIa was the final layer of the Late Bronze Age city. It
5740-453: The town is a relatively new Kent Müzesi (City Museum) which lays out the more recent history of the town. (The contents of the old Çanakkale Archaeology Museum have been moved to the new Troy Museum .) The most attractive part of town in the evenings is the wide waterfront promenade where the wooden horse created for the film Troy starring Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom can be seen. Many cafes and restaurants line up here to take advantage of
5822-467: The view of the Dardanelles. Regular ferries pass back and forth between Çanakkale and Kilitbahir where the second castle that was built to guard the Dardanelles is open to visitors. All the tour operators in Çanakkale offer tours of the Gallipoli Battlefields and Troy , sometimes on the same day. It is easy to reach Troy by minibuses from Çanakkale, although exploring the battlefields without
5904-423: Was a major Late Bronze Age city consisting of a steep fortified citadel and a sprawling lower town below it. It was a thriving coastal city with a considerable population, equal in size to second-tier Hittite settlements. It had a distinct Northwest Anatolian culture and extensive foreign contacts, including with Mycenaean Greece , and its position at the mouth of the Dardanelles has been argued to have given it
5986-499: Was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1998. The site was excavated by Heinrich Schliemann and Frank Calvert starting in 1871. Under the ruins of the classical city, they found the remains of numerous earlier settlements. Several of these layers resemble literary depictions of Troy, leading some scholars to conclude that there is a kernel of truth underlying the legends . Subsequent excavations by others have added to
6068-628: Was an important free port and trade centre in Roman times. In the 2nd century AD, the region was attacked by Goths from Thrace . During the 7th and 8th centuries, Arabs hoping to attack Constantinople passed through the strait several times and reached as far as Sestos At the start of the 14th century the Karasids under Demirhan Bey controlled the Anatolian side of the strait. The Ottomans first gained control of Gallipoli in 1367. In 1462 Mehmed II had
6150-568: Was built soon after the destruction of Troy VI, seemingly by its previous inhabitants. The builders reused many of the earlier city's surviving structures, notably its citadel wall, which they renovated with additional stone towers and mudbrick breastworks. Numerous small houses were added inside the citadel, filling in formerly open areas. New houses were also built in the lower city, whose area appears to have been greater in Troy VIIa than in Troy VI. In many of these houses, archaeologists found enormous storage jars called pithoi buried in
6232-635: Was destroyed around 1050 BC after an apparent earthquake. Troy VIIb3 dates from the Protogeometric era. No new builds were constructed, so its existence is known primarily from artifacts found in the West Sanctuary and terraces on south side of mound. These areas were excavated in the 1990s, surprising the archaeologists who had assumed that the site was abandoned until the Archaic Era. Locally made neck-handled amphoras shows that Troy still had
6314-500: Was destroyed by fire around 2550 BC. Troy II was built around 2550 BC. Although there is no evidence of a cultural break after the previous settlement, the new city had a very different character. It was twice the size of the preceding city, featuring a lower town as well as an expanded citadel divided into two precincts. These precincts, divided by colonnades , suggest growing socio-political stratification in Trojan society. At
6396-418: Was first settled around 3600 BC and grew into a small fortified city around 3000 BC. During its four thousand years of existence, Troy was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt. As a result, the archeological site that has been left is divided into nine layers , each corresponding to a city built on the ruins of the previous. Archaeologists refer to these layers using Roman numerals. Among the early layers, Troy II
6478-532: Was founded during the Greek Dark Ages and lasted until the Roman era . Though the site had never been entirely abandoned, its redevelopment as a major city was spurred by Greek immigrants who began building around 700 BC. During the Archaic period , the city's defenses once again included the reused citadel wall of Troy VI. Later on, the walls became tourist attractions and sites of worship. Other remains of
6560-697: Was made in Aegean shapes, though by 1700 BC it had been replaced by Anatolian shapes. Foreign pottery found at the site includes Minoan, Mycenaean, Cypriot, and Levantine items. Local potters also made their own imitations of foreign styles, including Gray Ware and Tan Ware pots made in Mycenaean-style shapes, particularly after 1500 BC. Although the city appears to have been within the Hittite sphere of influence, no Hittite artifacts have been found in Troy VI. Also notably absent are sculptures and wall paintings, otherwise common features of Bronze Age cities. Troy VI
6642-484: Was the Troy VI–VII lower city. This lower town had a wide anti-chariot defensive ditch backed by a wooden palisade. Added to the citadel this lower town would have brought Troy up to an area of around 200,000 square meters. This discovery led to a major reinterpretation of the site, which had previously been regarded as a small aristocratic residence rather than a major settlement. A number of radiocarbon dates, from charcoal samples, were obtained from various phases of
6724-519: Was to use the new technique of "molecular archaeology". A few days before the Wisconsin team was to leave, the Turkish government cancelled about 100 excavation permits throughout Turkey, including Wisconsin's. Kilitbahir Castle 40°08′52″N 26°22′46″E / 40.147656°N 26.379565°E / 40.147656; 26.379565 Kilitbahir Castle ( Turkish : Kilitbahir Kalesi )
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